FORT KENT, Maine - Earlier this month, the possession of marijuana for nonmedical use became legal in Portland. This, and other sporadic discussions about marijuana legalization in Maine, has shifted the focus of an Aroostook County-based organization that works to curb substance abuse among young people.

Now, besides teaching youth about the dangers of drunk driving, they are paying more attention to how marijuana can impair motorists when they get behind the wheel.

Michelle Plourde Chasse, Community Voices project manager, said in the past, Community Voices and similar groups have focused on alcohol when talking about impaired driving prevention over the past two or three decades.

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DYER BROOK - Officials in the Southern Aroostook Community School District have decided to join other school boards around the state in considering whether to establish a drug-testing policy for students who participate in extracurricular activities. Conversations are only preliminary, Principal Clark Rafford said earlier this week, but the issue came up at the district's school board meeting this month.

"This is just something we are throwing out there because other schools in the nation are starting to do it," he explained. "Some require random drug testing of athletes or those who participate in extracurricular activities. We are just opening the dialogue and considering if this is something we want to implement."

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